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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25936129">The Magician's Curse</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erato_Muse/pseuds/Erato_Muse'>Erato_Muse</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Constantine (TV), Constantine: The Hellblazer (Comics), Hellblazer, Hellblazer &amp; Related Fandoms</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 05:42:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,117</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25936129</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erato_Muse/pseuds/Erato_Muse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Magicians are forbidden to fall in love with their apprentice. John didn't think that would be a problem when he took Liv Aberdeen under his wing, to protect her and help her with a dangerous task left by her father, Baron Winters. As they have worked together and Liv has grown as a magician, John has grown to care for her, and finds it hard to resist her when she wakes up vulnerable and distressed following a nightmare one night at the mill house.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>John Constantine/Liv Aberdeen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Magician's Curse</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>How things could have gone if Liv had continued on the show after the pilot, "Non Est Asylum".</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“The voices?” John asked, concern beneath his gruffness, his voiced honed to a rough caress from years of whiskey and cigarettes, the cough and sick of hangovers, and a stint as a punk rock singer, as if enough damage hadn’t been done. But, if he minded damage, he wouldn’t be the man that fate had sent her way, to save her from the demons in the shadows.<br/>
Liv’s life was normal before she met John Constantine.  Boring, listless, killing her slowly, but it had its humble pleasures, like Twining’s tea with milk in the morning, browsing bookshops on rainy days, aromatherapy, ice cream, not hearing voices crying out for her help, begging her to spill her blood on her father’s map and find them, save them, help them.<br/>
“Come ‘ere love,’ John said, and tenderly placed his hands on her shoulders.<br/>
He coaxed her, and she moved with him, together they walked to the oriental carpet in front of the fireplace. The orange light cast from the dancing flames shone on her father’s supernatural bric-a-brac, which crowded every space not dominated by the huge mill wheel.<br/>
‘Love’. She knew it was a common affectation where he was from, but still, it calmed her when he called her that.<br/>
“Are you sure you’re up for this?” he asked, looking into her eyes.<br/>
“You need me. Its my blood that the map responds to, that’s how we find the hotspots of supernatural activity. That’s how we stop the rising darkness. I guess its our destiny, to do this together,” Liv said.<br/>
“Destiny, in my experience, is the name of a bitch with a sick sense of humor,” John said.<br/>
Liv smirked. “Is she all that bad? She set us up together, and I think we’ve done all right, so far,” she said.<br/>
John’s face vacillated from prematurely aged with care to eternally boyish, his youth restored with his mirth. In this case, when he smiled at the corner of his mouth, light played in his eyes, and the stubble on his jaw caught the light and glittered like the spines and pages of antique books, golden. His eyes cradled the fire.<br/>
“We’ve had our knocks, but we’ve done all right. There was that cursed Egyptian amulet at the Smithsonian…” he said.<br/>
“Right? We saved that middle school teacher from possession by that Mummy’s curse,” Liv said.<br/>
“Aww, the Mummy. She just wanted her name restored to history, after that she was a soft touch,” John said.<br/>
“And, that vampire in New Orleans,” Liv said.<br/>
“Vampire hunting ain’t my speciality. They splatter, so, when you stake ‘em! I’ll never be able to afford that kind of dry cleaning,” John said.<br/>
Liv laughed, and said, “And don’t forget the Jersey Devil.”<br/>
“I make it a point to forget every trip to New Jersey I’ve ever taken, thank you very much,” John rejoined.  “All right, all right, I see your point. We’ve done some good. But, look at the toll its taking on you, love. You can’t sleep. You hear the voices of the imperiled whenever you close your eyes.”<br/>
“I want to save them, John. The way you saved me,” Liv said.<br/>
She sat on the couch across from the fire. John sank into the cushions beside her, and placed a throw blanket around her shoulders. She looked into his eyes. He held her gaze. Finding out about her father, and being tasked with following the map where it needed her and John to go, being pulled from the normal life her mother had created from her when she fled her father’s magic and supernatural entanglements…it had all been a shock, but with every mission completed, Liv felt more purposeful and alive than  she ever had.<br/>
But the voices of the people who needed saving left her feeling raw, wracked, harassed, and drove sleep away from her on the long, quiet nights in the mill house. She had never sought John for any kind of help with that, because she wanted to show him she could stand on her own two feet.<br/>
“Who are you suffering for, Olivia? You think they need your suffering, out there? They need you strong, healthy, good at what you do, not run down and suffering for nothing,” he said.<br/>
She looked away, or tried to, but his fingers rested gingerly upon her jaw. She let his light touch hold her in place, hold her eyes looking into his.<br/>
What did she see there? Trust…she knew she could trust him, and that even though she looked sleepless and haunted right now, he trusted her, too.<br/>
“John…” she said softly. The firelight danced in the space between them, a space she could close so easily, or he could, if either of them dared.<br/>
She dared. Liv brushed her lips against John’s. She wasn’t sure what reaction she expected. What she got was John eagerly deepening their kiss, his lips insistent and ardent upon hers, drawing her lips in tune with his, making them feel tender and electrified with his attentions, his whiskey rough groans reverberating in her mouth and traveling up and down her skin like a startled flock of birds. Liv moaned, too, and let go…just like she let go and leaned into the power of her magic, she let go into how good this felt. Her chest pressed into John’s, her back arched, and his arm came around her, holding her yet closer. Liv parted her legs, and they cradled John’s thigh.<br/>
“You gotta take care of yourself, Livvy,” he said, the raw tones of it dancing along her skin, making her moan. His palms caressed the small of her back. Their energies mingled, their magic spoke….and John pulled away.<br/>
They were both gasping.<br/>
“Why did you stop?” Liv gasped.<br/>
“Its forbidden. A magician, and their apprentice…there’s a curse. Goes back to Merlin and Nimue. I can’t,” John said.<br/>
“I’m not your apprentice! I’m your partner!” Liv insisted.<br/>
“All the same, I can’t do much to keep you safe, but I can do this-let me,” John said adamantly.<br/>
‘Why have you forsaken me?!’ keened the voice in Liv’s head. She saw a desert, and a white adobe mission church, in the middle of the wind-whipped sand, beneath a dark, stormy sky. She clutched her head.<br/>
“Love? Livvy? What is it?” John said, trying to stay calm, but she could hear his concern.<br/>
“The map, John,” she said, keeping her voice steady. “I need to scry…someone needs us.”<br/>
The crystal pendulum, the knife, the map…the tools of their trade, their guides to stop the rising darkness, and save the innocent. John grabbed them, and hurried back to Liv’s side.</p>
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